Often one of the most overlooked pieces of a health and well-being regime can be sleep.
When you were a kid it seemed the worst thing in the world was bedtime. Now I would dearly love for a responsible adult to send me to bed at a decent hour!
So many of us seem to love sleep, yet we all seem to get so little of it. Well, not enough anyway.
And for something so seemingly simple as sleep it can cause a lot of issues it seems.
So could it be that you have started moving more, you are eating better, yet you still don’t feel like you are really getting there? Like the needle is stuck and not moving in the right direction?
Then we need to look at the S in MESH.
Long-term lack of sleep has been linked to increased risk of diabetes, obesity, depression, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
So when I hear some billionaire say they are just fine with four hours sleep at night I shake my head.
Yes, we are all going to be able to function perfectly well on differing amounts of sleep. But generally a statement like that comes about because people are trying to emphasise that hustling, working more, and sleeping less are the ways to success. ( I do know of one such billionaire that claimed to only sleep four hours a night, he has since revised and is up to six.)
It does seem the ‘sweet spot’ for most of us humans is between seven and nine hours sleep.
If you are regularly sleeping under seven hours a night, and/or your sleep is very broken then it could be having a significant impact on your performance in the gym, at work, in your leisure time, and yes, in bed too.
Do you remember being a kid, getting in a car at night and later waking up in your bed?
How easy and magical was it for that to happen?
Why does it seem so difficult to go to sleep, or get enough, as an adult?
We all have more and more responsibilities as we move into adulthood, and well, we think and worry about a whole lot more than we did as kids.
So are there solutions to this problem? Absolutely.
Are they simple? Yep, but they may not be easy.
Some things that you can try that have worked for others.
Journaling each night before bed.
Keeping a notepad and pen nearby at night so if you wake up you can jot those thoughts down.
No blue light after 7pm.
Reading a non thought provoking book at night, a good fiction novel for example.
Having relaxing music playing in your bedroom.
Keeping the bedroom cooler.
Using some scents like lavender to promote relaxation at night.
Listening to white noise/stories/music as you go to sleep.
Now you don’t have to do all of these things, but maybe one of them is something you are missing that is the important piece of your sleep puzzle.
We are all unique, and our sleep habits are no different. So let’s find yours and see if it doesn’t improve a lot of other areas of your life as well.